According to a report in the Seattle Examiner that ran
in April 2009....

"According to New Scientist,
science’s concern is a repetition of the 8-day
1859 “Carrington event,” a large solar flare accompanied
by a coronal mass ejection (CME) that flung billions of
tons of solar plasma onto the earth’s magnetosphere and
disrupted Victorian-era magnetometers and the world
telegraph system.

The New Scientist states, “The report outlines the
worst case scenario for the US. The ‘perfect
storm’ is most likely on a spring or autumn night in a
year of heightened solar activity - something like 2012.
Around the equinoxes, the orientation of the Earth's field
to the sun makes us particularly vulnerable to a plasma
strike.”

The next solar maximum is expected to occur in
2012. New Scientist reports that Mike Hapgood,
head of the European Space Agency's space weather team
states, "We're in the equivalent of an idyllic
summer's day. The sun is quiet and benign, the quietest
it has been for 100 years," "but it could turn the other
way."

The modern electrical high-power grid magnifies the
impact of solar flares. Since the grid is linked into
major aspects of modern society, the effects of another
Carrington event would be devastating. The National
Academy of Sciences report states: “A severe space weather
event in the US could induce ground currents that would
knock out 300 key transformers within about 90 seconds,
cutting off the power for more than 130 million people.”
The New Scientist states: “According to the NAS report,
the impact of what it terms a "severe geomagnetic storm
scenario" could be as high as $2 trillion. And that's just
the first year after the storm. The NAS puts the
recovery time at four to 10 years. It is questionable
whether the US would ever bounce back.”

China, which is installing a high-power electrical
grid more vulnerable than that of the U.S., Europe and
other developed nations will be similarly impacted.

The solar coronal mass ejection from the 1859
Carrington event arrived on earth in less than 15
minutes, which is faster that our early warning system
NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) can detect.

European Space Agency space weather head Mike
Hapgood states, "I don't think the NAS report is
scaremongering. “Scientists are conservative by nature
and this group is really thoughtful," he says. "This is
a fair and balanced report."